Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Hindraf may be overrating its own strength

COMMENT I would like to rejoin the debate on the Hindraf issue after having read DAP MP M Kulasegaran's opinion
that the Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf) has waned in strength
since the historic protest it organised on Nov 25, 2007, and his
speculation as to the reasons for that.

I want the say that the response
by Hindraf national secretary P Ramesh to the MP for Ipoh Barat's
compelling opinion comes nowhere close to a rebuttal of the points made.

Instead it digresses to become a piece of grandstanding by Ramesh as if to imply that Kulasegaran (second from left)
cannot speak for himself and needs the permission of his superiors in
Pakatan Rakyat to say anything substantive on the consultations between
Hindraf and the opposition coalition with respect to preparations for
the GE13.

This stance only underscores the point Kulasegaran
sought to make, that Hindraf has become so presumptuous about its
standing in the Indian Malaysian community such that other political
groups must engage with it - and other leaders of the Indian cause must
stand down to it or risk losing Indian votes in the general election.

As Kulasegaran argued, the anecdotal evidence of the last two years
casts strong doubt on the validity of this assumption of Hindraf's, that
the movement is chief broker for the Indian vote.

Attendances
at either PKR or DAP organised public events aimed at canvassing the
Indian vote in the last six months at least, furnish strong grounds to
believe that Indian Malaysians have moved on from having an emotional
tie to the historic march of six Novembers' ago.

That march,
evocatively described by Kulasegaran as the ‘Rosa Parks' moment in the
struggle for Indian socio-economic advancement in Malaysia, is now an
inspiring but distant memory to Indians who have chosen to support the
political parties in the opposition.

They don't want to be left
out of the historic opportunity, now impending, for change to the
Malaysian psychological and political landscape in which the urgent
needs of the people as a whole must transcend sectarian considerations
of race or religion that hitherto have created a disfiguring blight in
our society.

Clearly, many Indian Malaysians have moved on. By
declining to recognise this, Hindraf is in danger of being caught in the
political backwash.

Need to engage other groups

Hindraf, with its stance of demanding Pakatan to comply to its
race-specific blueprint for the Indian poor or risk losing their
electoral endorsement, is in peril of being left marooned on the shores
of a historic movement for political change.

Should this come to
pass, I am certain history would recognise this misjudgment of
Hindraf's as disastrous for its standing and for the shadow that would
cast on the excellence of its achievement in having organised the
pivotal march of Nov 25, 2007.

Hindraf
must realise that one swallow does not make a summer. The energising
and sustenance of a movement for change is a long, patient and
collaborative endeavour.

Minority groups should not overestimate
their strength but must engage with other reform-minded parties to
collectively bring about the fulfillment of goals that they jointly and
severally strive for.

Upon the overall system opening up to the
changes being collaboratively and jointly fought for, it would be very
difficult for treachery to then occur and, if it occurs, much easier for
criticism to be trained on these politicians such that rectification is
made.

This is the new situation that the reformasi movement is headed for in Malaysia.

It
is to the benefit of Indian Malaysians to join in this growingly
popular endeavour and not broker their votes to the highest bidder as if
this is an electoral stock exchange rather than a popular and
broad-based movement for historic change.

R
KENGADHARAN is one of the five Hindraf leaders who was detained under
the Internal Security Act in the wake of the movement's historic 2007
rally in Kuala Lumpur.